Singer Brad Paisley accepts the Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Throttleneck" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES) less

Singer Brad Paisley accepts the Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance for "Throttleneck" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED ... more

Photo: MIKE BLAKE

Image 15 of 24

Singer Carrie Underwood accepts the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Before He Cheats" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES) less

Singer Carrie Underwood accepts the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Before He Cheats" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake ... more

Photo: MIKE BLAKE

Image 16 of 24

British music producer Mark Ronson accepts the award for Best Producer of the year, Non-Classical, at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES)

British music producer Mark Ronson accepts the award for Best Producer of the year, Non-Classical, at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES)

Usher (L) and Quincy Jones (C) present Herbie Hancock with the Grammy for album of the year for "River: The Joni Letters" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California, February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES) less

Usher (L) and Quincy Jones (C) present Herbie Hancock with the Grammy for album of the year for "River: The Joni Letters" at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, California, February 10, 2008. ... more

The irony was not lost on Amy Winehouse as she swept Sunday night's Grammys, including taking home the best song honors for her timely hit "Rehab." Fresh out of rehab herself, and performing on a live video feed from London, she couldn't resist a smirk as she delivered the first chorus of the hit song ("no, no, no") and shouted out that she now had 17 days' sobriety.

Winehouse, who won five statues, collapsed into the arms of her background singers after winning Record of the Year, thanking her mother and father and her husband, "Blake incarcerated," who is currently serving time on an obstruction of justice charge in England.

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Her second album, "Back To Black," was a bright spot in the bleakest year of the record business' 100-year history and Winehouse was rewarded with a handful of awards including best new artist. With record sales dropping through the floor, the Internet all but swallowing the entire industry and the top-selling album of the year a Christmas album (Josh Groban's "Noel," selling a relatively anemic 3.5 million copies), the record business doesn't have much to celebrate, which left the three-and-a-half hour broadcast of the 50th annual Grammy Awards from the Staples Center in Los Angeles struggling for purchase with an audience at home with other choices on their dial.

A flustered Herbie Hancock dropped his thank-you notes and presenter Quincy Jones, something of an illustrious Grammy figure himself, picked them up and handed them back to Hancock, who read the lengthy list while producers ran background music to hurry him along. Hancock, whose "Headhunters" album was the biggest-selling jazz album in history, won album of the year for "River: The Joni Letters," a collection of Joni Mitchell songs, the sort of carriage trade material Grammy voters traditionally love.

Only on the Grammys, where hyperbole holds the day, could an announcer such as actor Jason Bateman call the modestly entertaining Foo Fighters "the greatest rock band in the world." The Beatles, possibly the actual greatest rock band in the world, were saluted by a performance from the Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas show of Beatles songs, "Love," and Beatles producer George Martin brought Ringo Starr with him to the stage to accept his award for the soundtrack to Julie Taymor's film "Across the Universe." The Beatles, by the way, who won only four Grammys during the band's actual career, have yet to be honored with a lifetime achievement award.

The show opened with a "duet" of "Learning the Blues" between Alicia Keys, who last night won the 11th Grammy of her nascent career, and Frank Sinatra, who only won 10 in his rather more lengthy and somewhat distinguished career, although Keys had him at a disadvantage since Sinatra has been dead 10 years and sang his portion of the song from an old video.

The producers dragged out a lot of the veterans, those who could still walk, for the Grammy's half-century. Demography-driven matchups brought together such unlikely pairings as septuagenarian Keely Smith with Kid Rock, and Andy Williams, Grammys host the first seven years, with Nelly Furtado.

Throughout the telecast, young performers were pitted against veterans. Beyonce was certainly a good sport, taking a serious upstaging from soul survivor Tina Turner, no matter how short her skirt was. Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) gushed over presenting an award with Cyndi Lauper ("she's so amazing"). Hancock played duet piano with classical pianist Lang Lang on Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue," a bathroom moment if ever there was one.

Rapper Kanye West, not known for his reticence, seemed to sense that his acceptance speech for best rap album might be his final moment onstage for the evening, so he ignored the cue music to cut his speech short and rambled on about his late mother (he had the word "Mama" cut into his hair). "This is my award," he said. He took home four awards on the night.

Country singer Vince Gill, picking up his award for best country album from Ringo, looked in the audience and said: "I just got a Grammy from a Beatle. Did that ever happen to you, Kanye?"

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